Cognitive flexibility is the ability to execute multiple mental tasks simultaneously, to switch from one task to the next easily, and restructure knowledge and strategy to tackle changing tasks. It has been described as the mental ability to control what one is thinking about, how one is thinking about it, and to change one's mind about it. Normal or physiological cognitive flexibility is demonstrated by an animal when it is required to change its thinking about a subject in response to a new set of rules, requiring the animal to perform a previously learned task under a new set of rules sometimes in a new environment.
There are many different factors that affect one's cognitive flexibility. Cognitive flexibility may be impaired by psychiatric conditions, aging, exposure to drugs or other toxins, and addiction. Impaired cognitive flexibility has been demonstrated in some people with ADHD, OCD, autism spectrum, Asperger's syndrome, schizophrenia, and anorexia-nervosa, for example. When cognitive flexibility is impaired, this is referred to as “cognitive inflexibility.”
Despite its important role in normal mental function, and its well-documented impairment, drugs that selectively target and improve cognitive flexibility are not readily available. The actions of the neurotransmitters dopamine, glutamate and GABA in multiple brain regions including the frontal cortex and basal ganglia are important regulators of cognitive flexibility and could be involved in the pathogenesis of cognitive inflexibility.